TRENTON — New Jersey is set to release $32.5 million in federal homeland security grants to the state’s 21 counties to purchase additional first responder equipment, “harden” potential terrorist targets against attack and fund additional homeland security and domestic preparedness initiatives, Attorney General Peter C. Harvey announced today. An additional $9.8 million will be provided to the counties to underwrite statewide programs and services provided to counties and municipalities, such as improved access to the state’s computerized intelligence data base, an innovative on-line training program for first responders, the state’s regionalized bomb detection and response initiative, and increased participation in federal Citizen Corps programs such as the Citizen Emergency Response Team (CERT) program. Another $2 million is being provided for two regional planning areas.

“We are working hard to implement smart, cooperative strategies to secure our critical infrastructure and protect our communities in the face of the threat of terrorist activity,” said Governor James E. McGreevey. “We are making the most of our federal funding but, unfortunately, that funding is not commensurate with the risks New Jersey faces based on its location, its dense population and the large number of critical infrastructure sites we have that are of national importance. We will continue our efforts with our congressional delegation to seek funding for New Jersey that is appropriate to meet the risks we face.”

Since January 2002, the McGreevey Administration has spent nearly $248 million in state funds for homeland security efforts, and the Governor’s proposed FY 2005 budgets calls for an additional $94 million. While New Jersey continues to spend additional funds to protect its citizens and communities, the Bush Administration’s budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2005 cuts funding nationally for first responders by 18 percent – reducing New Jersey’s share from an anticipated $55.4 million to $44 million.

In New Jersey, the Attorney General is applying a funding strategy that does link funding to risk. Each county’s allocation was based on the number of critical facilities identified in the county by state and county officials, the Attorney General said, with funding keyed to the added risk factors of hosting facilities that might be the most likely to attract a devastating terrorist attack.

Each county must submit a spending plan for its allocation to the Office of the Attorney General’s Grants Office by July 2, said Harvey, who chairs New Jersey’s Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force, the cabinet-level body that oversees state homeland security policy and coordination efforts.

The total of $44.3 million, provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS’s) Office for Domestic Preparedness (ODP), also includes two $1 million regional homeland security planning grants, one for a five-county region along the Delaware River and the other for a four-county region in the central part of the state. Both areas are rich with critical infrastructure important to the state and its economy. These planning grants are being used to replicate the type of coordinated and mutual planning that is currently taking place in the six-county Northeastern New Jersey Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) under federal UASI grants to that area. This is the second year of funding for planning initiatives in the Delaware River five-county region.

“New Jersey’s strategy for protecting its citizens and infrastructure recognizes the necessity for statewide and regional solutions based on principles of mutual aid,” said Harvey. “Additionally, although the federal government is still not distributing the majority of homeland security grants to the states based on a realistic assessment of New Jersey and other state’s security needs, we have recognized the necessity for protecting critical facilities and first responders across the state based on an assessment of potential vulnerability and risk of attack.

“Counties and municipalities play a key role in protecting New Jersey citizens,” he said. “The state has developed the overarching strategy for protection, but has relied extensively on the counties, which have a clearer understanding of the strengths and particular vulnerabilities within their borders, to help determine how funds are distributed locally.”

Harvey said the Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force required that each county form a County Multi-Disciplinary Working Group and charged the working group with developing funding plans centered on protecting — and responding to potential incidents at — sites where threats or hazards had been identified within the county. At a minimum, he said, the county working group includes the County OEM Coordinator, County Freeholder Director/Executive Director, County Fiscal Officer, County Prosecutor, County Police Chiefs Association representative, County Fire Coordinator/Fire Marshal, County EMS Coordinator, and the HazMat or chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive (CBRNE) team representative.

To strengthen this process, Harvey noted that the FFY04 grants for the first time also fund a position for a planner in each county’s Office of Emergency Management to coordinate and work on long-term homeland security strategies as well as a position for a County Critical Infrastructure Protection Coordinator in each County Prosecutor’s Office to focus on safeguarding key county facilities. This position complements the existing County Counter-Terrorism Coordinators, who focus on the law enforcement aspects of reporting and following investigative leads related to terrorism.

In addition to the $44.3 million going directly to the counties or being returned to them in the form of services provided by the state, the state is receiving $11.1 million as its share of the total FFY04 grant of $55.4 million from ODP. These funds will be used for such state activities as providing additional buffer zone protection for critical infrastructure, funding a statewide infrastructure data base, providing additional support to the statewide bomb detection and response program and additional support to the state’s exercise team that coordinates readiness drills and exercises statewide.

Harvey noted that the McGreevey Administration has been successful in including language in the state FY 2005 budget act that should help expedite the purchase and distribution of equipment for first responders. This language, which is restricted to the use of federal funds awarded to New Jersey by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for equipment, goods or services related to homeland security and domestic preparedness, obviates the need for state or local agencies to go through a time-consuming procurement process by allowing them to use existing federal or state contracts that have already been competitively bid from which to make their purchases. Harvey noted that this New Jersey innovation, as well as others, had been recognized and adopted by a federal Homeland Security Funding Task Force and reflected in the recommendations it made last week to DHS Secretary Tom Ridge.

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New Jersey’s Federal FY04 Homeland Security Grant Program (1)
Funding by County		Totals
Atlantic		$ 1,426,820
Bergen		$ 1,428,106
Burlington		$ 1,688,280
Camden		$ 1,371,351
Cape May		$ 538,503
Cumberland		$ 1,011,658
Essex		$ 2,165,671
Gloucester		$ 2,319,454
Hudson		$ 2,413,300
Hunterdon		$ 1,415,021
Mercer		$ 1,662,178
Middlesex		$ 3,405,620
Monmouth		$ 452,789
Morris		$ 1,003,534
Ocean		$ 619,649
Passaic		$ 3,209,101
Salem		$ 1,391,684
Somerset		$ 1,630,849
Sussex		$ 510,693
Union		$ 2,069,544
Warren		$ 782,140
Subtotal		$ 32,515,942 (2)
Other Programs
Delaware River Region Planning Initiative Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties		$ 1,000,000
Central Region Planning Initiative Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Somerset counties		$ 1,000,000
Subtotal		$34,515,942
Statewide Programs in Support of Countywide Initiatives		$ 9,823,258
Total		$ 44,339,200
(1) Funding from Office for Domestic Preparedness, U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2) Allocations to counties based on presence of critical infrastructure sites Identified by counties and state. NJ Office of the Attorney General, June 2004